


Unlikely Advantage

by AslansCompass



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Goblet of Fire AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-02 12:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15796308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: The first task in the Triwizard Tournament is dragons.Fortunately, Harry Potter is rather an expert in magical creatures. His adoptive dad, Newt Scamander, wrote the book on them, after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been planning a Newt Scamander adopts Harry AU, and this is one of the escaped plot bunnies from that universe. It won't tie in with the main series, but I thought it was worth typing up all the same.

 

 

> _Harry hurried up alongside them--for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them--and then his mouth fell open._
> 
> Dragons.
> 
> _Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing on their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting..._
> 
> Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, chapter nineteen

Harry stepped out of the fireplace into his parents' Hogsmeade cottage. "I know what the first task is."

Newt swallowed half a sandwich he'd been eating. "What?"  

"Have you been cheating?" Tina asked.

"Oh, let him be," Newt mumbled. "Sides, it's not he's the only one. You can bet the others will be sneaking around. Schools are the worst place to keep secrets, everybody's got to stick their nose in."

"I didn't mean to--Hagrid just said I should come out around midnight--so I followed him and Madame Maxine--and--" Harry grinned. "You'll never guess."

"They're making you translate ancient runes?" Tina joked. 

Harry rolled his eyes. "What kind of a tournament would that be? Seriously, who would watch it--well, maybe Hermoine," he admitted. "But no, not runes. Dragons!"

"Dragons? What kind?"

"Hagrid didn't ask. But Charlie was there, so they're probably all from the Romanian reserve."

"And he didn't tell us he was coming? Just for that, I'll take his name off the Christmas card list." Newt grinned.  "And you're fighting them?"

"No, just getting past them."

"Getting past them? Getting past them?" Newt burst out laughing.  "Three Headmasters, two Ministry officials, and the best test they can come up with is  _getting past_ a few dragons? Why not feed some mooncalves while you're at it?"

"Newt," Tina warned. "Professional pride is all well and good, but Harry is still going up against several tonnes of fire-breathing beast.  I'd like to hear how he plans to get through it."

"You sure you wouldn't rather wait and be surprised?" Newt leaned back in his seat. "But I suppose you have a point." 

* * *

 

 

> _...and there was the Horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon him, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground._

Harry paused for a moment to roll up the sleeves of his borrowed robe. Charlie was a good bit taller and broader than any third-year, but Harry didn't want to make too many alterations.  

The Horntail sniffed the air, tongue flickering in and out. 

"Hey there, girl, hey, hey," Harry pitched his voice higher. "Hey, Scorch,that's what they call you, isn't it? Must have been a nasty trip here, all the way from Romania, hey?" He whispered a spell; fizzing sparks shot from his wand. 

Scorch lowered her head but kept staring at him. 

Harry clicked his tongue and whispered another spell. He took one step forward, then another. Each step seemed to take hours. The whole time, he kept talking in the same high-pitched, scratchy tone. 

The golden egg was heavier than expected.  Harry could barely keep hold of it as  he backed away from the Horntail. 

"And our fourth champion, with a time of seven minutes fifty-four seconds, Mr. Harry Potter Scamander."

* * *

 

"But--but--I don't get it," Ron exclaimed later that night, as he and Harry were getting ready for bed. "I mean, why were you wearing Charlie's old robes? And the clicking thing? And those little spells--what was the point of them?"

"When I was eight, I wanted to be a dragon," Harry climbed into the four-poster bed. 

"A dragon tamer, right?"

"No, a dragon. Animangi, right? So I read every book about dragons I could get my hands on. Even struggled through Dad's notes on his work with Ukranian Ironbelllies. They're better at movement than details--cause when you're twenty metres up, it doesn't matter if you can tell a hedgehog from a fox, so long as you can see movement. And scent, of course, they're better than bloodhounds."

"So?"

"That's why I wore Charlie's robes.  She knew Charlie,  what to expect from him."

"Fine, but the spells? Surely you weren't trying to hurt it?"

"Hurt it? Nah, Dad would have my hide. There's signals that dragonkeepers use,  training systems.  Those were the signs for  'allow approach.' Might have mixed up my left and right, though. " 

"Harry, you're bloody brilliant."

"Now, if only the rest of the tasks could be this easy." Harry thumped his pillow. "Goodnight, Ron."

"Nite, Harry."

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

>   _"If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open....see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg--because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it!"_
> 
> Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, chapter nineteen

By 3 p.m. on Boxing Day, the extended Scamander family Christmas celebration had broken up into several smaller groups; Edward and Jo discussed the relative merits of Muggle and wizardly fever treatment, while Patrick looked over Thalia's new weather-forecasting charm. Several cousins were trading cracker favors,  while others were discussing the local Quidditch scene.

Harry sat sideways in one of the armchairs, petting one of the kneezles. "At least you don't care about any of this mess, do you? As long as I scratch your belly, I could be anyone. None of this tournament nonsense."

"Oh, I think she's always had a soft spot for you," Newt said, sitting next to Harry. "How you doing?"

"Glad the Yule Ball's over. That was worse than the dragon. At least here nobody's whispering behind my back about the whole thing. I mean, Rolf insisted I bring the Horntail model, but that just turned into a technical discussion."

"Speaking of magical items, have you gotten any further with that egg?"

Harry shook his head. 

"Want some help?" 

"Last time, Mum said--"

"Tosh.  All the most important discoveries come from people working together. Brooms can't fly if you whittle them down to a twig," Newt added. "C'mon, let's get some earmuffs."

* * *

 Harry was just finishing taking off his gear and stowing it as the judges conferred with the merchief.  

"You did great, kid," Newt said, carefully setting the goggles on top of the case. "Mind if I borrow this sometime? Mer-villages are so hard to visit normally. I still wish Dumbledore had let us stay awake during the task. Think of the observation--" Anything else he had to say was cut off by an announcement from the judges.

"Before we award points, we wish to have a word with young master Scamander."

Newt rolled his eyes. "I'd hoped we wouldn't have to deal with this."

"Oh, I don't know," Harry grinned. "I'm kind of looking forward to this. Uncle Cliff gave me loads of ideas."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

Harry approached the judges' table.  "Yes, sirs?"

"Kindly explain for us how you accomplished this task."

"Well, I put on the suit, I swam around for a while, found my dad, cut him loose--"

"Suit?" Crouch asked. "What suit?"

"Oh, it's a scuba suit. Stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.  Bit of a mouthful, honestly. Worked excellently. Granted, I should have cast a Warming Charm on it, but I wasn't sure if it would interfere with the electronics--"

"Electronics?" Bagman raised an eyebrow. "You mean like Muggles use?"

"Oh, sorry, didn't I mention? Of course it's Muggle. So?"

"This is the Tri- _Wizard_ tournament," Karkaroff said. "Muggle equipment is--"

"Not against the rules," Harry interrupted. "I checked." Well, technically _he_ hadn't checked, but his cousin is better at that sort of research anyway. 

"Fleur and Cedric used Bubble-Head Charms. Viktor used an incomplete Transformation. How are we supposed to judge your work?"  Bagman asked.

"Same as you did in the first task; I got the bloody job done."

"The Tri-Wizard Tournament--"

"Oh, so that's where you want to take it. Fine. I have a couple things to say about this whole mess anyway. First off, it's not a Tri-Wizard Tournament anymore, is it? There's four of us, in case you forgot to count.  It's a Quart-Wizard Tournament, if you want to be precise. Or if you want to go for the puns, it could be the Try-Wizard tournament, as in ' _try_ anything you want.'  In any case, the rules were broken the moment my name came out of that goblet-- a fourth, underage, champion. The rules? Hah!"

Harry turned his back on the judges and walked away.  

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the full-length AU version of this story, Newt's extended family includes several Muggle-born relatives, as well as a much more complex outlook on the muggle world. Since this fic is mostly crack, I didn't bother including a full explanation.


End file.
